OT: Now that the world is ending How will you spend your time?
I'm thinking of heading to Nebraska, I keep dreaming of an old women playing guitar on her front porch. Surrounded by acres of corn
Or are you going to Vegas to hang out with the dark man?
Either way I'd like to know your plans
I still think that is a stretch. I brought this up in one of the other coronavirus threads, but I started by professional career in diagnostic test development. The issue is not money per se, its time. As of 2.5 months ago, 99.999% of the world had never heard of this particular virus, particularly this strain. At that time, CDC spent the majority of resources (time and money) on a vast number of far worse pathogens. They have undoubtedly pivoted towards this, but not having those CDC budget cuts probably wouldn't have moved the needle much.
The difference in time it took for SK and US to develop a reliable diagnostic kit is telling. Hard to understand reallocation of budget didn't affect that.
Not really. Although I don't know much about the SK health system or what kind of tests they are using, but I do know that the company, SeeGene, in SK created it very quickly. They are a private company, not the SK government. So I don't see the parallel with the CDC here.
I think its fair to say that we dragged our feet a bit, but give it a couple weeks from now to see if someone, even a private US company, comes up with a good reliable test.
They are PCR test kits. Are they difficult to develop once the target gene information is already available?
Well. It depends on the a couple factors:
1. Do you have all the raw materials to make the kit. It take more than antibodies and enzymes to run the PCR reaction. It’s actually quite easy to run a PCR reaction on a particular cell gene, but not so much after that. In that you need a way to clean and isolate the reactants before you analyze it.
2. how fast and loose does the FDA want to be. I’m guessing they won’t be too restrictive. You also have a loophole if it’s a LDT.
PCR type tests fall into molecular diagnostic class of devices, which are typically harder to develop than tradition IVD tests.
Why would pcr rxns need antibodies? My understanding is a positive negative ctrls are run beside samples and it is analyzed by thermo cyclers used to run rxn. So if there are amplifications then it is positive for target gene withou need of cleaning or isolation of rxn.
There definately are shortages for virus rna isolation kits because hospitals at our institution have sent out emails asking research labs to donate said kit due to significant increase in test requests. Same is seen for dna oligo production for primers.
The kit from SK did get approval from SK gov within weeks which was said to be quicker than their norm as well.
Based on expert interview on NPR the inability to test in large scale was due not only not having a kit but also the lack of infrastructure, technicians, thermo cyclers to run tests etc which sounds like budget issues.
Science could've been working on creating a vaccine for something like this as I'm sure they were aware it was a very possible scenario, but I'm sure there's not a lot of financial support for creating vaccines for something that may never happen again or may not work if it does.
Hardcore sex builds your immune system.
Is hardcore sex like banging while running through a minefield?
Asking for a friend
I hear it involves rifles, Jeep Wrangler mufflers and human orifices.
That absolutely qualifies. In fact for 29.99 per month....
I just booked a round trip ticket from Philly to Nashville for $79.
Philly to Nola is around $120.
I'm gonna go listen to music and have beers. Same as ever.
I'm not sure yet.
Must be confusing for you when you are not the one behind the global crisis...
Or wait, are you? Another classic 4-D chess, Vlad move? Did your FSB create this in a lab?
Vlad? Vlad?
Just think of what the reaction would be if we actually had statistically significant death rates (meaning 1% or more of the overall population, not just a small subset of the small fraction of the population that gets infected).
Callous take, I know, but some larger perspective is needed here.
Deaths are easy to ignore until it's your own parent or grandparent. Then you'll be bitching about why more wasn't done sooner.
I 100% appreciate the situation: I have a close family member currently undergoing chemo and radiation treatments for lung cancer (all started before the coronavirus news). This person has almost no white blood cells left and is incredibly vulnerable to all diseases (not just viral) and my entire family is on edge.
However, this person also knows how to minimize high risk exposure as do the people around them. We did not put our entire lives on hold (nor did they, for that matter). Life can (and must) go on.
I think you don’t know what statistically significant mean. It isn’t a number you just pull out of your ass. I’ve seen more and more numbers from actual scientists that seem to suggest something below 1, but still significantly higher than 0.1.
The point is that who & how determines when an illness demands severe national response? What *is* the casualty threshold to meet in that case? Every life is precious and even one casualty that could have been prevented us an outrage, but this is all true for any infectious disease that is easily communicable and can decimate vulnerable parts of society.
I really am not trying to be cavalier about this, but we are approaching response levels that are more damaging to society than the disease itself.
please repost this when people freakout about a 3 star commiting to UM football team.
Once I run out of Netflix shows it's on to porn
My Work Gigs to St Kitts for 18 days and Cannes France for a month have been cancelled..I get paid for the first one since they cancelled 7 days out, so suddenly I find my calendar open for the next 3 months....I stocked up at Walmart and will hunker down even though I think everyone is overeracting..I will get alot of spring projects done around my new home and play alot of online Euchre
We should add the swine flu from 2009.
Bet you wouldn't say that if it was simian flu.
True dat. I wonder if chimps can catch this corona virus. To be on the safe side, we're only drinking Dos Equis.
That and starting more wildfires in Australia so we can finish off the vermin there...
Here's a thought: what if we're taking all these precautionary measures in order to *prevent* deaths from piling up, rather than reacting to it after the fact?
That's not the point.
If this is the floor now for preventing deaths (which I'm not saying is a bad thing)...
...I shudder to think what happens next time there is a bad flu season.
Even a novel strain of A/H1N1, which has historically caused some of the most deadly outbreaks in human history (including Swine Flu in 2009-10), is within most experience. Human behavior is pattern-driven; "coronavirus" is new to most people (in terms of their understanding - even though some strains cause nothing worse than a common cold), and COVID-19 seems to be spreading like a brush fire. For those reasons, I think the next flu outbreak probably won't cause the same level of panic, even if the ultimate infection rate and death toll is much higher than it ever gets with COVID-19.
Please stop with this “Hurr durr, look at how many more people die from the flu” bullshit.
First, it’s been shown ad nauseam why you just can’t make an apples to apples comparison between the two in terms of numbers.
And, second, because you’re going to look stupid as hell in several months if this thing isn’t brought under control and the deaths from it skyrocket past the flu fatalities.
OK, fine. Then go to this website:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
...and look at the statistics for China. The number of new cases and deaths are decreasing rapidly, in the pattern of a bell curve typically seen for an epidemic. And this is in a country with a more densely packed population in the Hubei epicenter, with a greater percentage of smokers, with a health care system that is not exactly optimal and wasn't aware of the coronavirus until the epidemic had been well established.
Please realize that to make that happen they had to enact what we would refer to as martial law to keep eveeryone penned up in their houses for 2 months. Tell me how you think that goes here in the states.
Next consider we are much less healthy than them. Obesity, high blood pressure, low exercise, more heart issues, hence worse immune systems.
Get educated or you'll be the next ijohnb of this blog.
Um, I wouldn't say we are much less healthy than they are. I mean, we are not the healthiest people in the world, but last I checked we have a higher life expectancy than they do. Plus, they are far far far worse smokers than we are, which is a leading factor that increases risk of catching this type of respiratory illness.
Lastly, their healthcare system is shit.
Get educated or you'll be the next ijohnb of this blog.
Stop making sense man... I just invented a motorcycle that explodes if you go past 55 mph. Only 10 people have died so far out of the 50 I've sold. 20 million have died in cars. Therefore, my exploding motorcycle is way safer than cars. It's simple math.
since we're posting graphs.
Well. That COVID graph is likely way off, in that the mortality rates are way high. They don’t exactly know who has it, and ALL experts say that incidents are way underreported. Factoring this would bring the mortality rate for COVID to come way down.
Same could be said of the flu.
No. We have the common flu well tracked and calculated for decades. The common flu numbers are far more accurate than COVID
Exactly.
Too bad a lot of folks and powers to be don't get it.
Riding the Peloton, watching netflix, investing in the market every time we lose another 8%
Definitely staying in the market. I hope the peeps who manage my money know what they're doing because there are going to be some major bargains out there.
there are going to be some major bargains out there
Yep!
After Musk had his investment call meltdown 2 years ago where he called the audience morons and idiots, I bought Tesla.
It's up 500% since then.
Ha!
World's going to end in about 10 seconds which is just enough time to suck a titty. But where would I find a titty from? I don't...well, hey, it's Sheila!
March 12th, 2020 at 11:15 PM ^
DrunkOnBigguns
Annnnnd....the NHL just suspended the entire schedule.
Which is ridiculous. Everyone knows this wouldn’t impact NHL players in the slightest.
In fact, in a game vs. Toronto in the 1958 NHL season, Gordie Howe went into full cardiac arrest due to complications from a bad case of Avian Flu and was legally dead for 10 minutes.
Fortunately, it was between periods and he recovered in time for his next shift.
Suspending a few weeks at a time... the NHL certainly has a lot of experience in suspending the season in 2/3 week chunks!
I wonder if this means that I win my fantasy playoff game now. Just pulled ahead by three points last night! Thanks Coronavirus!!
My parents are gone and I have no children in the house anymore. It's just me and my wife. I'm going to go to work and come home and keep things normal. If I get sick I'll stay home.
And let me just say that I think the health authorities and the government at all levels seem to be doing a very good job at getting information out and telling people how to deal with this. If this is anybody's fault it's likely the Chinese government for not acting faster when this first came out. All these people pointing fingers and placing blame are doing nothing but spreading panic and making this more difficult than it needs to be. Chill out people. Lay low and STFU. This too shall pass.